Washington Sites

In 1888, a church and school building was erected in a central location at newly-divided Brown's Prairie, with the Reverend David Buchmueller as pastor and teacher. By 1911, a new wooden six-room school building was used each Sunday, with one teacher for six grades. In 1939, the wooden school was replaced using WPA funds, constructed by architect Travis Broesche and stone mason Carl Whitmarsh. In the 1940s, the Brown's Prairie School was referred to as Washington School, and after the 1950-51 school year, all students were transferred to Brenham after its annexation into the district.

A small rural schoolhouse was built in 1939 by the WPA for students in the rural community of Brown's Prairie, replacing a 1911 wooden one-room schoolhouse. Brown's Prairie School as described on a Texas Historical Marker located on the site of the former school: "In 1888, a church and school building was erected in a central location at newly-divided Brown's Prairie, with the Reverend David Buchmueller as pastor and teacher. By 1911, a new wooden six-room school building was used each Sunday, with one teacher for six grades. In 1939, the wooden school was replaced using WPA funds, constructed by architect Travis...

The small frontier town of Washington, Texas entered history on March 2, 1836 when representatives of the largest settlements in Texas met inside an unfinished building near the banks of the Brazos River to declare independence from Mexico. When independence was gained, some of those delegates lobbied to designate Washington as the permanent capital of the new Republic of Texas. However, that honor went to Austin, and by the end of the nineteenth century, Washington was little more than a ghost town. In the 1910s, community groups and influential citizens lobbied Texas legislators to make the state acquire sites related...